


Hold Me Close

by rakketyrivertam



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: All Kinds of Love are Valid, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Discussions of Past Trauma/Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Relationship Discussions, That's The Power of Love, but it's the thenardiers, dumbasses in love, nothing too heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 07:23:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19352215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rakketyrivertam/pseuds/rakketyrivertam
Summary: Éponine's friends(?) comfort her after a new Ami stirs up some old doubts and feelings.





	Hold Me Close

**Author's Note:**

> This is literally just an excuse to write JBMÉ but it actually turned out reasonably good and I actually went to the trouble of editing it, so please review.
> 
> I would like it to be noted that more than anything else, I ship Éponine with therapy and stability, but also JBM, so.

Éponine sucked in a sharp breath when Cosette first appeared in the back room of the Musain. Of course she recognized her, how could she not? They had spent so much time together as friends, as sisters, and then as torturer and target when that inexplicable shift happened and just for a moment, she was a Thénardier.

Musichetta wrapped an arm around her waist, as she was wont to do, and pitched her voice low so as to not disrupt the meeting. "You alright?"

Éponine, who was in general not a truthful person as a matter of survival, shook her head.

Musichetta squeezed her hip. "Come to ours after?"

Joly and Bossuet leaned their way, both looking concerned, though Joly moreso.

Éponine nodded.

The meeting passed quickly, and yet entirely too slow, like any other event that has you wishing you were anywhere but there.

Éponine was nearly in a daze by the time she was walking in the door.

"Pajamas?" Musichetta asked, kindly as ever.

Éponine nodded and went to her room, getting dressed while listening to the low murmurs of what was probably her friends deciding what to do with her.

By the time she gathered the courage to face their judgement, Joly was setting cups of tea on the coffee table. Bossuet opened his arms and she let herself fall into them, holding tight.

Boss gave the best hugs.

The two of them curled up together on the couch and Joly passed out the tea before plastering himself to Éponine's other side, and then Musichetta reached around Bossuet to put a hand on Éponine's side, and the four of them just existed for a moment.

Just existing with a person is just about the most vulnerable you can be, and just existing with three people is three times as vulnerable as that. It had taken months of tensing up, of readying to fight or flee, of not knowing if this was real and knowing it was certainly not deserved, before Eponine had become comfortable with the whole thing.

"Want us to stop?" Joly murmured, playing with the ends of her hair.

"No," Éponine said.

"Want to talk about it?" Bossuet asked.

"I should," Éponine said. "But I don't want to."

"When you're ready," Musichetta said.

Ready is a relative term, so Éponine curled up a little tighter, a little away from her friends, then spoke. "I'm not a good person."

"Define good," Bossuet said.

Musichetta poked him in the ribs, reasonably certain it wouldn't result in a concussion this time. "Careful, your lawyer is showing."

"I've done unethical things," Eponine answered.

Musichetta refocused. "Is this about Marius' new girlfriend?"

"Is that why she was there?"

Joly nodded. "What is it you feel you've done?"

"My parents fostered her, and I was cruel to her." She paused and closed her eyes. "Abusive even. Just like them."

"But not anymore."

"But I still did it. And the only reason I stopped anytime before we were both adults is because someone came and took her away and I realized I was jealous. And then I realized that if I was jealous, that meant things weren't really as okay as I wanted them to be. And that if things weren't okay, and I had participated in those things, then that made me a bad person. And if I'm a bad person, then I don't deserve all those things that she got and I wanted." Éponine laughed and ran a hand through her hair, pulling it out of Joly's fingers. "And then she walked in today and I'm still jealous."

"Wanting better than the hand that life dealt you isn't a character flaw," Bossuet said. He chuckled and gestured to the wall full of framed medical disharge papers. "I should know."

Éponine shook her head. "This isn't about the hand that life dealt, it's about choices I actively made. Yeah, I was a kid, but I should've known better. You - you're a good person, Boss. And you've said it enough times yourself - despite your rather spectacularly shitty luck, you've been blessed with the best friends, the best partners, and a drive to do real good. Me? The best I can do is actively try and fail to not fuck up."

"It's hard being good," Joly said, nodding in something like agreement. "The trying is the most important part. I'm sure Cosette will see that."

"And you have us," Bossuet said, beaming, giving her the out if she wanted it.

Éponine sighed and nodded. "I do have you guys, literally the best friends."

Bossuet's smile fell.

Éponine schooled her face into a mask of neutrality. "We're friends, right?"

Bossuet turned to Musichetta. "I thought you talked to her."

Musichetta shook her head. "I thought you were going to."

"No, it was way too important to be entrusted to me," Bossuet said. "Joly?"

"I'm right here," Éponine interrupted before Joly could answer.

Boss grinned sheepishly and rubbed his own bald head for good luck. "Well, you practically live with us at this point. I mean, you have your own room."

"We've made it clear you're welcome in _our_ bedroom whenever you feel comfortable," Joly pointed out.

"And you come with us on all our dates," Musichetta said.

Bossuet nodded. "So we kind of assumed you were our partner, and you just weren't ready for the whole kissing or 'sleeping together even just for sleeping' thing."

Éponine froze. "And you were okay with that?"

"Of course," Joly said.

"We love you," the three of them chorused.

Éponine's eyes began to leak without her express permission. This was an unforgiveable sin, and she stood from the cuddle pile and hid her face in order to properly chastise them.

Finally, she turned around to find the others very carefully not waiting. "I have so much shit I need to get together before I can even think of getting into a serious relationship, let alone a serious relationship with three other people," she said.

The three of them exchanged a look, and then Bossuet was the one to speak. "We respect your boundaries, and also we want you to know that we accept your shit, whether it's together or not."

Joly snorted like the actual five year old he not so secretly was inside.

Musichetta rolled her eyes at him. "What we mean is that it's okay. We can just continue like we have been if you'd rather. You don't even have to give us a yes or a no or a maybe later. You're important to us, and you deserve all the love we can give you and more, no matter what kind of love that is."

Éponine rubbed her eyes and nodded, jaw trembling.

Boss opened up his arms again and she went willingly, letting the three of them hold her until they'd all had their fill.

And that was a long way off.


End file.
